a worried mind

framed prints for the bathroom. I'm not sure if I should count this, but I'm going to.

strictly legal plants.

I have been meaning to buy a new plant light for awhile. The week (marked in my calendar with green!) when I can start the earliest of the inside seeds is approaching. So today I finally got it ready. James and I went to Home Depot for the fixture, and then I attached it to a piece of wood I already had hanging around and added hooks to the corners so I can suspend it from pieces of chain (which I haven't gotten yet). This should make it easy to move it up as the seedlings get higher.

I also have a heat mat. I'm hoping that these two together will make up for the dismal cold in my basement (which is the only place where there is enough space for starting seeds). In about five weeks I can start with the peppers.

This has also been quite a productive weekend for chores and other boring things, and I got to see one of my favourite babies (as well as his favourite parents), and I finished a very good book (Robyn Okrant's Living Oprah), so I guess I can't complain. On Friday night James and I went to see A Single Man, which I rather enjoyed, although (spoiler alert!) it totally American Beauty-ed us in the end. Colin Firth was in it, looking handsome, as usual.

I'm going to look for some chocolate chips.

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Now playing: Tegan and Sara - My Number
via FoxyTunes

Somehow it became Day 20. Finished the orange quilt block. I think my sewing machine needs a tune-up, it keeps chewing up my thread.

i'm in love with the tentacles

Hola, Los Internets! Or should I say Interñets? Actually, if you pronounce that, it sounds Russian. Nyets! Nyets!

So I've compensated for my TAD slackerdom with some achievementdom, and tonight James and I are going to see A Single Man. And, actually, I updated my when-to-plant-things spreadsheet. And put my dog in a hoodie! Happy weekend!

I am not happy with this FORMATTING!

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Now playing: Rah Rah - Tentacles
via FoxyTunes

Seventeen, the day. Like Seventeen the magazine, only sassier.

I made brownies! I haven't tried them yet, but they're probably going to be good, since they contain all the items from the Heart Attack Checklist.

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Now playing: Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
via FoxyTunes

Day Fifteen.

I've had the most unhealthy day. It's family day, aka "the fake statutory holiday in February," and some friends suggested breakfast at MacDonald's... which somehow turned into breakfast at MacDonald's, some Rock Band, three episodes of Angel, two episodes of The Office, and one episode of 30 Rock, plus Dairy Queen. Oh, and then I watched two episodes of Firefly while I made my thing a day: a TRABAJAR bag. At least there was a bit of pseudo-productivity at the end of what was, let's face it, an awesome but sort of depressingly lazy day. The thing that differentiates me from total losers is that I had a husband, a dog and some friends to do these activities with. Still, I feel a bit Ancient-Rome-y (you know, with the decadence?) so I better eat some healthy food and/or get some exercise tomorrow.

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Now playing: The Devlins - World Outside
via FoxyTunes

day10!

Today: more sewing. I saw this idea somewhere... can't remember where. I read RSS feeds of blogs so it's hard to keep track of where things are.

Day 9.

Today I worked on my quilt-- the red block is almost done, so that's probably about 1/7th of the total sewing. I am happy with the fabrics and so on, so far. But so much fiddly sewing, ironing and pinning! It's not my kind of project, in this sense.

I also made a mix CD for Meghan, as tonight we are going on an expedition to get Indian food and go to IKEA. This is one of my favourite hanging-out combinations, and bless her heart for thinking of it.

Yesterday I made a Titanium Razorplate (although I'm not sure if that counts, although it does knock my gear score over the 2600 mark). And something else! I FORGET!

I haven't been missing as many days as it probably seems I have been missing. In fact I think so far it's only 1. But I can't be bothered to post everyday. Plus, if you check the Thing-A-Day blog you will find an intimidating display of electronics, delicious homemade food, and photography. It makes me feel guilty and inadequate.

Emma and I are having a very good day off. Earlier we went for a walk, and I brought my coffee. Peace out, Internet.

Day 7

Today: Plant Labels. I'm boring, but at least I made something. Something WITH CLIP ART.

It feels like I used up all my weekend much too fast. I need a mulligan.

days 3 + 4 (=7)

And inside my hat, is little Day 3! [And 4]. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I am feeling a bit pathetic, at this moment--I just actually DID NOT HAVE TIME to do anything better. But maybe it's the headache that has been gnawing on my brain for about 30 hours.

DAY 2

Thing a day 2: New pens + winter fatigue = seeds sorted.

DAY ONE

Thing a day 1: Off to a start. I can post these to the posterous blog automatically along with the official Thing-A-Day blog, so I think that is what I will do. Don't be sad, blogger blog. I still love you a medium amount.

OH CRAP!

So it's my first day off in over a week, and I had a Coke for breakfast, and then I was 100% going to play some WOW, thus rendering myself even more l33t. But I forgot that Tuesdays, especially Tuesdays I don't have to work, are Server Maintenance (Tues)Days. So here I am, blogging like a chump. How long has it been, Internet? Two weeks? Which is 5 Internet Years. I'm surprised you're still here.

I am really enjoying the VLog brothers' YouTube channel, in particular this video in which the actual John Green, who is on YouTube Paternity Leave, is replaced by fellow YA author Maureen Johnson. (On a side-note, I am currently reading Let It Snow, a sort of novella collection by those two authors with the addition of Lauren Myracle. Even though it is not really Christmastime anymore, or actually, not Christmastime AT ALL, I'm still enjoying it.)

ALSO! I am going to attempt Thing a Day again this year, and this year I have no plans to buy any houses or be any bridesmaids (?) or anything. So I may actually have time and energy to, you know, make some Things. That will begin next week, in approximately 3 Internet Months. (Don't ask, 'cause it's an algorithm I don't expect you'll be able to understand without your degrees in Advanced Made-up Maths.)

Isn't it cute how British people say Maths? I know!

Thing-A-Day, Feb 22nd

A few Things

I know I claimed I was no longer committed to Thing-A-Day, which is true, and I shall not apologize for missed Things. However these things are done in their own right, so I might as well post them.

Feb 16th - I made some jewelry, including this simple necklace with some red coral. Hopefully it is not endangered.


Feb 17th - Planning my book.





Today - My book is done. It did not turn out awesome, although I will probably still use it. Now that I have made one I know how to make them better. The assembly was hard--figuring out what order things needed to go together in--and I overdid it on the vinyl, which caused much complaining and snapped thread from my sewing machine. It was a trooper though, or possibly a trouper--I'm not sure which. Also, I'm sad that I kind of wasted this fabric which I only had a fat quarter of to start with, and now I think I might have to buy more because I love it so much.

I was inspired by this chequebook cover in Amy Butler's book In Stitches, although what I ended up with came out quite different. Maybe the next iteration will have a zipper.

Everything I make matches my blog. Hmmm.

Guilt; confusion; sensitive co-workers.

I have this reusable Whole Foods bag that a friend bought in Vegas, which somehow made its way home with me and has continued to make its way to and from work, and the grocery store, with me. On the side, it says, "I love my home... planet earth," but the way the words are arranged is artfully uneven, and every time I see it this is what goes through my mind: "I love my home planet... earth." Huh. That's weird because no one has a home planet other than earth. Every. Single. Time. My brain is not capable of remembering what it actually says on this bag, or even that my predictable wrong response is, well, wrong. I kind of want to get rid of the bag just because it's a reminder of how my mind is hard-wired for certain kinds of failure.

I think people know how tired and stressed I am, and everyone at my work is walking on eggshells around me. It's actually kind of nice. This is what I imagine it would be like to be an invalid. I'm like an invalid, but the kind that has a job. And I've actually had a really productive afternoon, having recycled a bunch of tiny notes with tiny reminders written on them after performing the tiny tasks they signified, and also emptying out my outlook inbox. I found a tiny error on the website and instead of notifying the person who should fix it, I just fixed it myself, because my desire to not have to communicate with others overwhelmed by desire to not have to do things myself.

I think I have petered out on Thing-A-Day. I'm sad about that because I love the idea, but when I committed to do it I absolutely did not anticipate that this was going to be one of the busiest and most stressful months of my life. I have been spending a little bit of time almost every day making something, but I haven't summoned the commitment necessary to actually document and post these things, which to me is kind of the point. So. Fail.

oh boy.

i've been falling down on the job. I have sort of been doing my Things, but haven't had time to take any pictures. I finished my wedding invitations (right before the hall we'd booked called to tell us we'd been double-booked, because our wedding is DOOMED, but I don't really want to think about that any more), made a pair of decorations for Meghan's bridesmaid shoes, and today I made a box for my socks with missing mates.

More importantly, James and I bought a house! We are homeowners, or we will be if we can come up with some money. It has what real-estate listings call "charming built-ins," including an ironing board that folds down out of a cupboard, and--perhaps most excitingly--it has a little window in the back porch, through which you can access the clothesline. WHICH CAN BE USED TO SEND SECRET MESSAGES TO THE GARAGE. (Sample secret message: "We will be paying for this until we retire.") We're pretty excited. I'm going to have a place for my sewing machine that isn't my kitchen table. It's going to be GREAT.

plus it's orange

Second project for the day--this was actually supposed to be yesterday's, but I didn't get home until 10:30 last night so it had to wait until today. I had a metal "BITS" board from IKEA which I hadn't used for awhile, so I decided to cover it with some pretty wrapping paper. Then I made little magnets to match. I might get some clear contact paper to cover the paper since it's still a little flimsy.

I'll use it as an "inspiration board," or I would if I was the kind of person who could utter the words "inspiration board" without grimacing.

Daily thing: Invitations again

Daily thing: invitations again. I did another set of stamps and put in grommets. The front half is done now. There's a second page with a map and RSVP information which I will print tomorrow at work, and then the two pages will be tied together with string.

I blacked out the location because there's going to be an open bar, and I don't want the whole Internet crashing :) UNLESS YOU BRING A PRESENT.

Daily Thing: Feb 9th

Daily thing: Printed all 60-odd wedding invitations. This is just the first step. I'll post more detailed pictures when they're done. Suffice it to say that my printing hands are inky and sore.